December Journal

Spent the day picking up supplies for the sugar shack.....got the preheater plumbed in now all I need to do is cut the holes in the hood for the pipe and that will be ready to go. Next I will start dry fitting the firebrick so that will be already to go once the sugar shack is done. 160$ worth of copper fittings...that stuff is exspensive. Also picked up the 2 by 6's for the rafters...those will go up the next time we have a semi-warm day (no wind). Still need to move the head tank into place. Marked up an area that will have around 70 taps in it yesterday. Ill start tubing that after christmas. Lots to do and the days are ticking away.

Those clamps are awesome, I ordered 2 100 packs from Mcmaster-Carr and use them for the 1st time this year. Very fast and very cheap.
I picked up a pair of end nippers from Harbor Freight to crimp them. When I put them on I am sure to put the ears out of sync by 90 degrees. If I need to remove them I just grab the ear with the nippers and squeeze and twist and off they come.

I use 2 per fitting to be on the safe side.

I just got tired of buying those cheap hose clamps from HomeDepot and Lowes, they would strip out right before I got them tight enough.

These were the answer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tuckermtn

so you slide the clamp on then pinch the ear on top to squeeze the pipe? do you have to cut them to take them off?

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yes if you have to take them off you grab the pinched portion with the end nippers and twist.They are pretty fast to remove .

Like Chip said they're used a lot for irrigation work which I used to do. It took me a while to find a source for them. One time use, but they're cheap enough it doesn't matter.

Lowes sells the tool you use to tighten the clamps and it's with the clamps. Here's what the tool looks like.

http://chadstoolbox.com/1098oetikerclamppliers.aspx

I haven't had any problem with them holding vac.

Visited the "Maple Baron of Forest County" yesterday. He was working on the feed lines to the Force 5. I bought a 5" filter press from Daryl last weekend. Now I need to find a small amount of food grade DE. I'll probably set up the mobile sugar shack in less than a month. I plan on tapping on any decent warm spell around Feb. 1.

Gary,
I can help you with the filter aid.

Jim

Gary R I have a full bag you can have some !


Jim

Gary,
You should have said some thing while you where here yesterday. I could have give you all the filter aid you would need. Good to see you again.

I'm finally back to maple. To work in my lease woods I had to wait until deer season ended. It ended last Sunday and I started working in the woods Wed. I walked the woods and cleaned up branches down. I have no mainline down , nor branch lines, just latterals. They cleaned up easily. Next I started getting the inwoods abandoned cellar ready to set my Vac tank. It is only about 40' from the road, is 6' deep, dry floor, but need to remove some brush. The house must have been here 1800's or early 1900's. My plan is to set the 1000 gal Zero in there to use the lines I have with out needing a sap ladder except from one direction with about 60-75 taps. I will be adding 2 branch lines not needing sap ladders and 1 needing a sap ladder or 2 for a total lift of about 10-12' and up to about 150 taps.
I recently removed the 240V motor from my Alamo vac pump and need to design a motor mount adapter to mount a 5hp motor off an old but reliable snow blower. I hope to get a season from that and will likely buy a Honda for the next season. To get the vac tank into the cellar, I need to hire an excavator about 2x the size of mine. I lifted the tank with mine but could not carry the weight very far out from the machine (only about 5.5'). To place the tank it will need to lower the tank while holding out about 9 or 10'. I just turned on my solar power at the sugarhouse this morning (see another thread) but am taking until Sunday afternoon off for the holidays. From there I need to work on the tank, the vac pump, new branch lines, sap ladders, a dry line for about 500' and then rewalk my latterals for chew damage. I usually get very little after starting to clean with food grade hydrogen peroxide. Time will tell if this continues. On Wed, I saw no chew damage, but I only looked where damage used to be the worst, around the end tree loop. When I do my next walk I walk and check every foot, by running my hand the full length of every latteral. As for snow, We had about 38" in 3 days about 2 wks ago, and no melting, but it has settled to about a foot except where it drifts the most at fields edge.

I have a permission to get before I can set the tank into the old cellar. The landowner says it is okay to put it into the cellar, BUT he does not want a roadway from the field to the cellar, where snowmobilers can blindly race in and land in the cellar smashing into the far wall. I need to see if he will let me make the opening and then plug it with big boulders and downed trees and brush to block it. I might need to get him to walk the area to get him to allow me to make that opening. If I opened it and left it, the opening, about 11-12' wide would go straight off the end of a long field that tapers down and this would be inviting to race into, with the cellar, tank and certian injury or death only 30' off the ields end. I need to assure him I can effectively plug it up and that I will keep it plugged every year until the brush fills the drive back in.
I also had a landowner(?) ask me last year if I was interested in tapping his 75 or so mature roadside sugars just a mile or so from my main bush. I looked last may and said I was very interested. Then he said he had to talk to his mother (who still really owns it), he has not gotten back yet. As soon as I get the woods done on my lease bush I will go ask him again. At this point I'm guessing mom said NO! It shouldn't be him deciding no because he was real happy with what I said I would pay per tap.